Empty coat hanger rack

ABSTRACT

A rack for storing empty coat hangers that has a rectangular shape with an upper horizontal beam, a coplanar lower horizontal, a left vertical bar, and a coplanar right vertical bar. The left and the right vertical bars are about identical in shape, and both the left and the right vertical bars have a set of upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses. An empty coat hanger having a center hooked element, a left arm and a right arm, and a horizontal rod will hang almost upside down by the horizontal rod when the horizontal rod is seated in a pair of the horizontally grooved recesses. The rack has a mounting element centered on the upper horizontal beam therein enabling the rack to be mounted on a wall, substantially perpendicular to a level floor, with a sheet rock screw or a nail.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent application/patent claims the benefit of priority of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/612,811, filed on Jan. 2, 2018, and entitled “EMPTY COAT HANGER RACK”, the contents of which are incorporated in full by reference herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to racks for coat hangers, and more particularly to a rack for efficiently storing empty coat hangers when they are not in use, such that they do not take up space on a clothing rail and do not become entangled.

2. Background

Coat hangers have a hooking element that is centered on a pair of downwardly divergent arms, and typically a spanning horizontal rod. Coat hangers that are empty are more likely to become entangled than when they are holding clothing, in large part because the clothing functions as a spacer, separating hooking elements of adjacent coat hangers. Empty coat hangers have no spacer, and are more easily entangled via the hooking elements. Entanglement has been observed to be mitigated by adding spacer disks between the hooking elements. Another mitigating device is embodied in security hangers, which have a strong chrome pin which connects to a security ring, which is permanently attached to a secured clothing rail. These security hangers are slightly less likely to entangle as they have no hook, but they have several disadvantages, the most egregious are that it is very difficult to align the pin with the security ring, and you can't add more security hangers without removing the clothing rail.

There is now a wide assortment of coat hangers, and all can be accommodated by the clothing rail. Wire hangers are probably the most common, but they are also the most likely to entangle. The higher cost coat hangers are made of wood, and they are also usually the thickest, with the exception of coat hangers covered with a paper tube. Plastic coat hangers are the most diverse in color, shape, and size.

Another type of hanger is a clamp-hanger, which typically also has a hooking element, but it is centered on a plastic horizontal rod with a pair of distal clamps, which in some variations are slidable to accommodate a range of waist sizes.

Gary Keith Carter in U.S. Pat. No. 8,763,312 teaches in FIG. 4 and FIG. 3 a set of interlocking panels that have an elongated channel 112 in FIG. 1, wherein a bottom portion 304 of an upper panel can intersect/lap an indent 120 of a lower panel forming the elongated channel. Carter's invention has many fasteners, and looks like it would be suitable for heavy objects, wherein the fasteners are for a plurality of cantilevered posts that can support relatively heavy items, like a plurality of coats on coat hangers.

Trevor Simon teaches in U.S. Pat. No. 9,366,275 an apparatus mounted to a more conventional slat wall. As illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the slat wall has an upper undercut and lower undercut elongated channel.

Michael A. Honermann in D738,146 teaches an ornamental design for a vertical slat wall with vertical slots forming a vertical recessed elongated channel. The slat wall, as shown in FIG. 1 has a slot that is substantially shaped like a J bar. If turned on its side, the horizontal recessed elongated channel could receive a coat hanger, but the coat hanger would no doubt be difficult to retrieve from the J slot, as the hooking element would be keyed in the J slot.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Broadly, the present invention is a rack for efficiently storing empty coat hangers when they are not in use, such that they do not take up space on a clothing rail and do not become entangled.

A first object of the invention is that the rack can receive a wide assortment of coat hangers that have a spanning horizontal rod. For example many wire coat hangers have a paper core horizontal rod that spans between a pair of divergent wire arms, and many wire coat hangers have a wire spanning horizontal rod. Wood hangers often have a wood spanning horizontal rod and a parallel anti-slip wire to secure pants. Plastic coat hangers frequently have downwardly divergent arms with a pair of strap indents or a pair of strap stops. In short, the rack can accommodate coat hangers having a range of materials, dimensions and shape.

A second object of the invention is that the rack for storing empty coat hangers should be very easy to mount on a wall, wherein the rack and the wall are substantially perpendicular to a level floor. An illustrative example of “very easy to mount” is a mount that requires only a few screws or nails.

A third object of the invention is that the invention substantially minimizes entanglement of hooking elements on adjacent coat hangers. Some overlap is tolerable but there enough spacing to minimize entanglement.

A fourth object of the invention is that the rack for storing empty coat hangers is optimized to use a minimal amount of material, therein keeping the cost down.

A fifth object of the invention is that it should be relatively easy to remove any specific individual coat hanger without rearranging the other coat hangers on the rack.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciable from the following description of preferred embodiments of the invention and from the accompanying drawings and claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing invention will become readily apparent by referring to the following descriptions and the appended drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevated perspective view of an embodiment of the rack for storing empty coat hangers, wherein one coat hanger is shown;

FIG. 2 is a frontal view that illustrates the rack substantially filled wherein several types of empty coat hangers are illustrated;

FIG. 3a is side view of the rack for efficiently storing empty coat hangers, illustrating how the coat hangers hang on the rack, overlapping lower coat hangers; and

FIG. 3b is a side view of the rack for efficiently storing empty coat hangers, illustrating how a specific coat hanger can be removed from or added to the rack.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Illustrative embodiments and exemplary applications will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings to disclose the advantageous teachings of the present invention.

Various embodiments of the invention are described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all of the embodiments of the invention are shown in the figures. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Those having ordinary skill in the art and access to the teachings provided herein will recognize addition.

The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers is a rack having a rectangular shape that includes an upper horizontal beam with an upper left end and an upper right end, a coplanar lower horizontal beam with a lower left end and a lower right end, a left vertical bar, and parallel, a right vertical bar.

The left vertical bar extends from the upper left end to the lower left end and the right vertical bar extends from the upper right end to the lower right end.

The left vertical bar and the right vertical bar are about identical in shape, in that both the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar each have a set of upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses.

In one embodiment the empty coat hanger has a center hooked element, a left arm and a right arm, and a horizontal rod will hang almost upside down by the horizontal rod when the horizontal rod is seated in a parallel pair of upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses on the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar. There is a mounting element centered on the upper horizontal beam therein enabling the rack to be mounted on a wall, substantially perpendicular to a level floor, with a fastening element selected from the group consisting of a sheet rock screw, a nail, a picture hanger, a set of French cleats or a combination thereof.

The invention, as illustrated in FIG. 1 is a rack for storing empty coat hangers 10, wherein the rack has a rectangular shape that includes an upper horizontal beam 12 with an upper left end 12 ul and an upper right end 12 ur, a coplanar lower horizontal beam 14 with a lower left end 14 ll and a lower right end 14 ur, a left vertical bar 20 l, and parallel to it is a right vertical bar 20 r. The left and the right vertical bars 20 l,20 r are substantially identical in shape. The vertical bars have a set of upwardly slanted frontal teeth 22 l,22 r separated by upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses 24 l,24 r. As shown, an empty wire coat hanger 1 w, having a center hooked element 7 w, a left and a right arms 5 wl,5 wr; and a wire horizontal rod 3 w is hanging nearly upside down by its wire horizontal rod 3 w, which is seated in a pair of horizontally grooved recesses 24 l,24 r. In FIG. 1, the rack for storing empty coat hangers 10 has 20 pairs of horizontally grooved recesses 24 l,24 r and 19 pairs of upwardly slanted frontal teeth 22 l,22 r, and so can store up to twenty coat hangers. The illustrated rack 10 has a mounting element 16 centered on the upper horizontal beam 12, and it can be easily mounted on a wall, substantially perpendicular to a level floor, with fastening elements selected from the group consisting of sheet rock screw, nail, picture hanger, a set of French cleats or a combination thereof.

As shown an embodiment depicted in FIG. 2 the bars 20 l,20 r are separated by a distance 20 d of at least about 6 inches±about 1 inch, which is greater than about one third of a length of the spanning horizontal rod of a common coat hanger (about 15 inches±about 4 inches). Typically a wire spanning horizontal rod 3 w has a length 3 wd of about 18 inches, while the length of a wood spanning horizontal rod is around 15 inches, and the length of a paper core spanning horizontal rod and a plastic spanning horizontal rod is about 16 inches. The distance 20 d is about 6 inches±about 1 inch, therein assuring that the arms 5 wl,5 wr of the wire coat hanger 1 w extend past at least the next lower pair of the upwardly slanted frontal teeth 22 l,22 r.

In the rack 10′, illustrated in FIG. 2, there are four plastic coat hangers 1 p shown, as well as four wire coat hangers 1 w. Note, in rack 10′ there are 17 pairs of horizontally grooved recesses 24 l,24 r and 16 pairs of upwardly slanted frontal teeth 22 l,22 r, and so the rack 10′ can store up to seventeen coat hangers.

FIG. 3a illustrates how, in the rack 10″, the arms 5 wl,5 wr (where 5 wr are obscured) and the hooking element 7 w of a racked coat hanger 1 w, overlap several coat hangers racked beneath it. In the FIG. 3a the top coat hanger in the rack is overlapping three coat hangers under it. Optimally, the top coat hanger would be the last one added and the first one removed. However, if one wants to remove a lower coat hanger, for example the fourth coat hanger, this can be easily done. As shown in FIG. 3b , the top three coat hangers are rotated outward, as indicated by the vertical two headed arced arrow, by lifting the third center hooked element 7 w, therein enabling the fourth coat hanger to be removed.

An empty pair of horizontally grooved recesses 24 l,24 r that is overlapped can be filled by lifting the center hooked element in the rack above the empty pair of horizontally grooved recesses, and while lifted, filling the rack, as indicated by the horizontal two headed arced arrow.

In the illustrated rack 10″ in FIG. 3a and FIG. 3b , the rack can store up to eighteen coat hangers. On average, about up to about ten hangers can be stored per vertical foot.

The choice of materials used to form the rack has an impact on the maximum number of coat hangers it can hold. In FIG. 2, the rack 10′ can hold 16 coat hangers is constructed of a rigid plastic. The rectangular dimensions are about 22 inches×7.5 inches, rounding to about 2 ft. long for 20 coat hangers. A 30 hanger rack would be about 3 ft. long, a 40 hanger rack would be about 4 ft. long, a 50 hanger rack would be about 5 ft. long, and a 60 hanger rack would be about 6 ft. long. Additional mounting elements would be preferably be employed for longer rack.

No-limiting examples of material useful for forming the rack are selected from the group consisting of a rigid plastic including polycarbonate, ABS, filled polypropylene, polymethacrylate, rigid polyesters, PLA (polylactic acid), polyamide (nylon), glass filled polyamide, epoxies, fiberglass, as well as wood, metal and composites thereof.

While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one of ordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within the scope and spirit of the invention.

Finally, any numerical parameters set forth in the specification and attached claims are approximations (for example, by using the term “about”) that may vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by the present invention. At the very least, and not as an attempt to limit the application of the doctrine of equivalents to the scope of the claims, each numerical parameter should at least be construed in light of the number of significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding. 

1. An apparatus for storing empty coat hangers, comprising: a rack having a rectangular shape, the rack having an upper horizontal beam with an upper left end and an upper right end, a lower horizontal beam with a lower left end and a lower right end, a left vertical bar, and a right vertical bar parallel to the left vertical bar, the lower horizontal beam being coplanar with the upper horizontal beam; wherein the left vertical bar extends from the upper left end to the lower left end of the apparatus, and the right vertical bar extends from the upper right end to the lower right end of the apparatus; wherein the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar are about identical in shape; and wherein the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar each have upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses, the upwardly slanted frontal teeth and the upwardly slanted horizontally grooved recesses being sized and positioned such that an empty coat hanger placed in a respective parallel pair of the upwardly slanted horizontally grooved recesses extends past at least a next lower pair of the upwardly slanted frontal teeth.
 2. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus is sized and positioned such that the empty coat hanger having a center hooked element, a left arm, a right arm, and a horizontal rod will hang almost upside down by the horizontal rod when the horizontal rod of the empty coat hanger is seated in the respective parallel pair of upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses on the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar.
 3. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, further comprises: a mounting element centered on the upper horizontal beam therein enabling the rack to be mounted on a wall, the mounting element being substantially perpendicular to a level floor and having a fastening element selected from a group consisting of: a sheet rock screw, a nail, a picture hanger, a set of French cleats, and a combination thereof.
 4. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, wherein the rack is configured to store up to about ten hangers per linear vertical foot.
 5. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus is formed of material selected from a group consisting of a rigid plastic such as polycarbonate, ABS, filled polypropylene, polymethacrylate, rigid polyesters, PLA (polylactic acid), polyamide (nylon), glass filled polyamide, epoxies, fiberglass, wood, metal and composites thereof.
 6. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises twenty of the upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by twenty of the upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses on each of the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar, such that the apparatus is configured store at least twenty empty coat hangers.
 7. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, wherein the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar are separated by a distance of at least about 6 inches±about 1 inch.
 8. The apparatus for storing empty coat hangers according to claim 1, wherein: the apparatus is configured to hold sixteen (16) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about 22 inches long×7.5 inches wide; the apparatus is configured to hold twenty (20) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about two feet long×7.5 inches wide; the apparatus is configured to hold thirty (30) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about three feet long×7.5 inches wide; the apparatus is configured to hold forty (40) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about four feet long×7.5 inches wide; or the apparatus is configured to hold fifty (50) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about five feet long×7.5 inches wide.
 9. A method, comprising: providing an apparatus for storing empty coat hangers, the apparatus comprising: a rack having a rectangular shape, the rack having an upper horizontal beam with an upper left end and an upper right end, a lower horizontal beam with a lower left end and a lower right end, a left vertical bar, and a right vertical bar parallel to the left vertical bar, the lower horizontal beam being coplanar with the upper horizontal beam; wherein the left vertical bar extends from the upper left end to the lower left end of the apparatus, and the right vertical bar extends from the upper right end to the lower right end of the apparatus; wherein the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar are about identical in shape; and wherein the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar each have upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses, the upwardly slanted frontal teeth and the upwardly slanted horizontally grooved recesses being sized and positioned such that an empty coat hanger placed in a respective parallel pair of the upwardly slanted horizontally grooved recesses extends past at least a next lower pair of the upwardly slanted frontal teeth.
 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the apparatus is sized and positioned such that the empty coat hanger having a center hooked element, a left arm, a right arm, and a horizontal rod will hang almost upside down by the horizontal rod when the horizontal rod of the empty coat hanger is seated in the respective parallel pair of upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses on the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar.
 11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the apparatus further comprises: a mounting element centered on the upper horizontal beam therein enabling the rack to be mounted on a wall, the mounting element being substantially perpendicular to a level floor and having a fastening element selected from a group consisting of: a sheet rock screw, a nail, a picture hanger, a set of French cleats, and a combination thereof.
 12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the rack is configured to store up to about ten hangers per linear vertical foot.
 13. The method according to claim 9, wherein said apparatus is formed of material selected from a group consisting of: a rigid plastic such as polycarbonate, ABS, filled polypropylene, polymethacrylate, rigid polyesters, PLA (polylactic acid), polyamide (nylon), glass filled polyamide, epoxies, fiberglass, wood, metal and composites thereof.
 14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the apparatus comprises twenty of the upwardly slanted frontal teeth separated by twenty of the upwardly slanted rounded horizontally grooved recesses on each of the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar, such that the apparatus is configured store at least twenty empty coat hangers.
 15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the left vertical bar and the right vertical bar are separated by a distance of at least about 6 inches±about 1 inch.
 16. The method according to claim 9, wherein: the apparatus is configured to hold sixteen (16) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about 22 inches long×7.5 inches wide; the apparatus is configured to hold twenty (20) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about two feet long×7.5 inches wide; the apparatus is configured to hold thirty (30) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about three feet long×7.5 inches wide; the apparatus is configured to hold forty (40) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about four feet long×7.5 inches wide; or the apparatus is configured to hold fifty (50) empty coat hangers and rectangular dimensions of the apparatus are about five feet long×7.5 inches wide. 